I thought the game was a little more one-sided than Robin and Orville did, in favour of Croatia. They had enough chances to put the game away (which were sometimes effectively stopped but too often just blown with errant shots), but these became less frequent as the game went on, so credit to North York for hanging in there (loved the way keeper Luciano Miranda took control to slow things down). Perhaps the second half was even, but North York still didn't create more than a couple of good scoring chances as only Compton Hall played forward and the rest of the team focussed on defence. And they did this very well: Croatia's chances were created by good play, not North York errors like I'm used to seeing. As Orville pointed out, the back line was solid.
The goal was one of those slow-motion deals. The way Miranda's long kick bounced and Compton Hall chased it down and Croatia keeper George Azcurra (too) hesitantly came off his line (or maybe he shouldn't have done so at all), you could hear everyone's anticipation rising as they realized that only a small touch was needed, but everything was moving so slowly! Finally the ball bounced in, "sending Astros' players and fans into a frenzy", as Orville put it. In relative terms, it was a frenzy. Prior to this I didn't even think there were any North York fans present (at least half the people in attendance were Croatia fans and they were quite vocal), and when there are only 40 people there for regular games (a good number of which support the visitors), the best you get is a few claps from some people. But now people were actually cheering, loudly! (Okay, there was also help from some of the Ottawa players that stuck around and rooted for an "easier" final opponent in North York, and maybe others were neutrals supporting the underdog, but still...)
Speaking of the Croatia fans, there were a lot of them and they seemed to all be Croatian. If that doesn't give the impression of exclusivity then I don't know what does. Nothing against the people, I have Croatian friends myself, but you feel like you're watching a foreign team or something. We don't need this.
Anyway, I was just hoping for one decent game on Friday night and instead I got two wins, so I don't care what happens now... but on the other hand, once you have a taste...
FORZA NORTH YORK!!!